Greetings from Merrifield, Minnesota
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Crystal Lake Ice Track – Lifetime Track #1,731
THE EVENT “FROM COKE SYRUP TO HARD WATER RACING” TRACKCHASING WEEKEND! TODAY’S HEADLINES Slogging through the trackchasing political bullshit takes just about all the energy I have…………..details in “Randy’s Really Riled Up – Continued””. There were two logistical aspects of today’s event that made it perfect…………….more in “The Trip”. My readers make some very good points ………..details in “Things you might have noticed had you been paying more attention in school”. RANDY’S REALLY RILED UP! (continued) Is trackchasing and its management guilty of gender discrimination? And you wonder why…… And you wonder why I voluntarily “opted out” of participation in the Pennsylvania trackchaser track listings……. When I last left you Carol was in jeopardy of losing her trackchasing voting privileges. I am pleased to report, that as of this writing, Carol is going to be allowed to vote on any upcoming trackchasing proposals. A “pre-authorization” to enter a public website? Some time ago, trackchasing czar Guy Smith required that we provide a “pre-authorization” for him to check Carol’s trackchasing results from my website at www.randylewis.org. Can you imagine that a “pre-authorization!” I checked with my lawyers and they seemed to think this was a harmless enough request. Of course, as you know, my website is open to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, political party or waist size. It is even open to Mr. Smith, who can visit any time he wants. Nevertheless, Guy Smith required a “pre-authorization” before he would “officially” visit my website. Guy makes lots of “unofficial” visits but I guess those don’t count. We gladly jumped through the “political hoops” that Mr. Smith required because Carol wanted to maintain her well-earned position as an eligible voter. If Guy wanted to think he had been “pre-authorized” to visit a site that is open to the public he was free to think that. Monopolies are rarely a good idea. I, on the other hand, have voluntarily given up my right to vote when I requested that all of my track listings be removed immediately from Mr. Smith’s site at www.roamingtheraceways.com. I don’t care much for the leadership or integrity within the trackchasing hobby as exhibited by Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith pretty well runs a monopoly in the Pennsylvania political world of trackchasing. He controls which tracks are listed by any trackchaser participating in the Pennsylvania trackchasing lists. He runs the Yahoo! Groups Trackchasing forum. He decides who can be accepted onto the forum and who cannot. He evaluates each track listing as to whether or not it meets his interpretation of the rules. He decides who is eligible to vote on any upcoming proposals based upon his arbitrary rules on trackchaser reporting. Why does Carol even show an interest? It’s a wonder that “Trackchasing’s First Mother” has any interest in being an eligible voter at all. Nevertheless, she does. She feels she worked hard to see her 400 tracks that qualified her to become an eligible voter. However, Mr. Smith and others would just as soon she dropped out. Carol’s trackchasing political beliefs do not mirror those of Mr. Smith and some of his cronies. This puts her in significant future jeopardy. In a recent post to the trackchaser forum Mr. Smith gleefully exclaimed “Randy Lewis sent the link to Carol Lewis’s 2012 track visits and she has added one new track so far this year back in January. Randy also resent the 2011 list, which was inaccurate the last time he sent the link for updating, and four Carol Lewis tracks that were omitted from 2011 were added so that her track list is now also up to date.” He seems to strongly imply that I sent his Carol’s most recent trackchasing results. Do Mr. Smith’s misleading and untrue statements surprise me? No, they do not. It should be noted that I do not send Carol’s track lists to Guy Smith. Carol does not send her track lists to him either. Nevertheless, Carol’s trackchasing results are available via www.randylewis.org 24/7 every day of the year. As a “professional courtesy” I do copy Guy Smith on any Trackchaser Report that I publish where he receives a significant reference. I will copy him on this report. In the interest of “transparency” I feel it’s the least I can do. Do I expect Mr. Smith to change any of his behaviors? No, I do not. Will he modify them somewhat? Who knows? The best I can do is bring his actions to the attention of those interested in the hobby’s well being. On the other hand, if Mr. Smith would like to receive my Trackchaser Reports directly, like you do, all he has to do is submit an application. Upon a background check and approval I guess he could become “pre-authorized”. Although I have never rejected an application in the past, I am not making any promises should Mr. Smith apply. In order for Guy to get Carol’s results he must look for separate keys that do not apply to my list for any tracks she may have seen. Guy refers to some of Carol’s tracks being as “omitted”. This is another inaccuracy on Mr. Smith’s part. My website is updated on almost a daily basis. Information is constantly being added. Carol’s track information is added after my lists are complete. Editor’s note: Here’s a link to Carol’s lifetime trackchaser list. It’s pretty easy to see her list isn’t it? In summary, it is true that Guy Smith has received a one-time “pre-authorization” per his request. This “pre-authorization” is good in perpetuity unless and until it is revoked. Of course, all information at www.randylewis.org is copyrighted and not to be used in any unauthorized manner. Could I make this point any more clear? I must repeat that Carol does not send her trackchasing results to Guy Smith. I do not send her trackchasing results to Guy Smith. If he wants to see her results he can simply go to my website just like everyone else does who has a similar interest. I happened to notice on the forum recently that Mr. Smith sent an email to trackchaser John Moore asking him to update his 2011 trackchasing list. He did not receive a response. Mr. Smith then took additional action asking the entire 100+ person forum if they knew how to get in touch with Mr. Moore. From there I would assume either phone calls or letters would resume the search by Mr. Smith for Mr. Moore’s results. Wouldn’t it be grand if Mr. Moore had a website listing his results that Mr. Smith could access at his convenience? It seems like it would be much less effort on Mr. Smith’s part if EVERY trackchaser had a current website listing their results. Sadly, there is not another trackchaser (200 tracks or more) who has a personal site listing their results on a real time basis. However, Ed Esser does do a good job summarizing his trackchasing activities at http://2arace.blogspot.com/. Discrimination is punishable by the laws of the land. If I didn’t know for certain I would think Mr. Smith is trying to outwardly discriminate against Carol. That just seems plain wrong. I know he wants to control every aspect of trackchasing. However, some folks have to stand up against this tyranny or be steamrolled by Mr. Smith’s outrageous power hungry policies. Carol and I are prepared to stand up to Guy Smith. THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL THE BEST READERS IN RACING TAKE TIME TO CONTRIBUTE From a Western based reader who advocates for social networking including Facebook. “Online social networking is here to stay. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Yelp, Google+ or any of the myriad of ways of communicating these days. Oh yes I agree, one can waste away hours reading and posting but on the more productive end of the spectrum people can advertise businesses, communicate with their clients, review businesses, make decisions based on reviews, gather info etc. If used productively there is a treasure trove of information readily available at your fingertips. Isn’t that what we all want in the end? Instant access with validation. Besides if you want to bridge the gap with anyone under the age of 30 then get on board or you’ll be left at the station wondering where everyone went.” From a Midwestern based reader on the potential for adding flat karts as a countable class within the trackchasing hobby. “At this point in time, adding the flat karts would seem to be unfair to anyone who is serious about their track totals. But not adding them may be equally unfair in the future. The whole point in trackchasing is to have fun, and disallowing flat karts would work against that goal. Personally, I do not think flat karts belong with stock cars; they are too different. But as long as the rules are both Very Clear and Totally Fair, why deny something that many people really want? …… Anyway, that’s what I think. Thank You for the reports — they are quite interesting!!” GREETINGS FROM MERRIFIELD, MINNESOTA VIDEOS! PICTURES! SEE WHAT I SAW TODAY! It’s simple. There are three different ways for you to see what I saw today at the races. You can watch a movie (always less than ten minutes). Secondly, you can see my still photos via YouTube.com. Finally, you can see my still photos by using Picasa. With Picasa you can view the pictures at your own pace or watch them in a slide show produced by Picasa. Pick the method you like best from below. THE PLAN, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Plan I was lucky to find the Hardwater Ice Racing Association race group back in 2009. I first came across the Hardwater Ice Racing Association by pure luck. Back in 2008, Carol and I were attending a road course ice race run by the IIRA (International Ice Racing Association) group. They were out on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota. Carol and I were talking to one of the locals and telling him about our ice racing hobby. He looked at us and then pointed downstream. They’re racing on an oval right there. “Right there” was probably less than a mile away! Yep! Had we not talked to this fellow we would not have even noticed that another ice race, on a different type of track (road course vs. oval) was going on right in front of our cold noses. We soon ventured down to see a great field of cars running an ice racing oval program. I would come to find out this was the Hardwater Ice Racing Association (HARA). Then last year I saw many of these same racers competing on Saturday on the ice in Crosslake, Minnesota. I’ve kept in touch with this group as they’re moved around the lakes of Minnesota. Generally, a trackchaser can only count one track type on one lake. Of course, if you’re talking about a huge lake like one of the five Great Lakes, there are exceptions to that rule. No, an IRS agent did not write the trackchasing rules. Want to check out the rules of trackchasing? Click on the link below. No, they were not written by a former IRS agent. By the way I’m not sure you can find a description of trackchasing’s rules anywhere else available to the public. Why would that be? The Trip The logistics of today’s event were perfect. I woke up this morning in Lakeville, Minnesota. I went to bed in San Clemente, California. This is what today looked like. There were two features of this trip, travel-wise, that I liked. First, I was able to stay in the same hotel in Lakeville, Minnesota for both Friday and Saturday nights. It just turned out that I was driving right through Lakeville each evening of the trip. Secondly, with a Sunday afternoon race somewhat near one of my sponsor’s airline hubs I could get a non-stop flight back to Los Angeles on Sunday evening. My Monday morning yoga teacher likes that. I’ll watch the Super Bowl later, like maybe in July. This is Super Bowl weekend. Nobody, for the most part, travels over Super Bowl weekend. I love that. It meant I wouldn’t have to worry about those always full Sunday night flights. Super Bowl weekend is one of the very best weekends for standby flying of the year. In the summer I can get rained out, in the winter I can get melted out. Any way you put it too much water is bad for most types of auto racing. The Midwest is having a very mild winter. The winter has been so mild that it’s been bad for ice racing. However, the weather scientists back at Randy Lewis Racing headquarters in sunny Southern California have hardly missed a beat. While my fellow competitors have only occasionally seen an ice race this winter, I’ve seen every ice track I’ve attempted to attend. My staff doesn’t send me out in rainy weather or weather that’s too warm for ice racing. The People Oh those ‘NIMS’ people! Today I was trackchasing in Minnesota. Minnesota is home to “NIMS” people. That’s right. NIMS people. What are NIMS people? They are folks who live in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota or South Dakota. That’s where the nicest people in the country come from. I’ve never lived in any of these states so I have no vested interested in what I say about these areas. I should know. I am an observer of people. I’ve been traveling most weekends to one state or another for years and years. When I travel I watch stuff. I watch people, places and things. You have to respect the opinion of a person with such a broad range of experiences. The NIMS people are the nicest of anywhere I visit. A stranger’s arrival is noticed in the tightly knit world of ice racing. Today when I pulled onto the ice I was driving a rental SUV with a Missouri license plate. I hadn’t even gotten out of my vehicle when a fellow came over and said, “Do they have ice racing in Missouri?” No, they don’t but this reminded me I was in Minnesota. Only “NIMS” people will be so open and friendly. One person after another came up during the day just to chat. They remembered when I had visited their race in Garrison and told the world about it via my Trackchaser Reports and YouTube videos. Folks, appreciate being recognized for the time and effort they put into their hobby of ice racing. Heck, folks appreciate recognition for just about anything they do. Constant contact is important during a warm winter. I had been in contact with Kent Erlandson about today’s racing. His name is at the top of the list on the group’s website (http://hardwatericeracing.com/about_us.html). The website says that any updates to the racing schedule will be posted on their Facebook page. I am still not a member of Facebook. Are websites going to be “yesterday’s news”? Here today; gone tomorrow. Last year, the group raced in Gull Lake, Minnesota. I had a chance to go there on the last weekend they raced at Gull Lake in 2011. However, at the last minute I drove out of my way to go to Bass Lake instead. I figured I could see ice racing on Gull Lake this year. Wrong! They moved their racing from Gull Lake to Crystal Lake for 2012. Follow the money. Why would they do that? When you don’t know the answer to a question you can often find the answer by “following the money”. The bar, Harpo’s Bar (Harpo’s), that sits off Crystal Lake offered to sponsor the ice racing group in 2012. You gotta go where you can get the best support in racing. The friendliest of people. During the driver’s meeting, Kent mentioned I was visiting. Lots of people were very welcoming. I told them to keep an eye out on You Tube. They just might have their very own Crystal Lake ice racing viewed by people all over the world. And the truth is, folks from all over the world are watching ice racing from Crystal Lake in tiny Merrifield, Minnesota as we speak. RACE REVIEW CRYSTAL LAKE ICE TRACK – MERRIFIELD, MINNESOTA Ice racing has a short ‘shelf life’. Today was about as nice a day for ice racing as one could expect. The temperature was near thirty degrees Fahrenheit with no wind. If it’s much warmer than thirty the ice begins to melt! Then it wouldn’t be “hardwater” racing would it. Ice racing has a rather short “shelf life”. Almost all ice racing begins in early January and wraps up in late February. That means that under ideal conditions a group may get 8-9 events completed. There are some ice racing organizations that are yet to get their very first event started. Others are having to cancel their races in the middle of the ice racing season. That rarely happens but it is this year. Thanks goodness for the lakeside tavern. More than half of the ice races I’ve seen have been in Wisconsin and Minnesota. There is a common theme with these events. Quite often there is a lakeside bar/tavern where the racers can retire too after the racing is done. Like today, the bar often kicks in some financial support to help the racers out in exchange for their business. Today’s racing took place on an oval. I’m guessing the oval was about ½-mile in length. I’ll also guess there were some 20-30 racecars in the pit area. I don’t know for sure why oval tracks call the place where the cars are located the “pits” and the road courses say it’s the “paddock”. That just one of the many differences between oval and road course racing. A BLUE flag? Today’s group used a BLUE flag to signify one lap to go. Normally, a white flag is used for this chore. Why a blue flag? Because the drivers can’t see the white flag all that well amongst the ice and snow. Makes sense to me. These guys and gals race hard. The Hardwater Ice Racing Association (HARA) races various forms of 4-cylinder, studded, fully studded, soft rubber and hard rubber stock car classes. They also have a class for “15 and under” drivers and a navigator class. Somebody told me what the navigator class was at the track but I can’t recall for sure. It sounds like two people to a car (pilot and navigator!) and that’s probably what it was. Many of these cars race on Saturdays on nearby Crosslake. It seems like it would be spelled Cross Lake but it’s not. What impressed me about where all of the HIRA races are held is the hard and fast racing they showcase. These are not old clunkers slipping and sliding all over the ice. This is very good racing. I am impressed with the dedication of ice racers. I am impressed with how dedicated ice racers and their crews are. You would think this kind of racing was the Daytona 500. Too them it is. Who else would be willing to bring their cars to the track for several hours in what can frequently be sub-zero wind-chill temperatures? Every time I see a crew member or driver changing a tire in these conditions I cringe. Today I positioned my car at different points all around the oval track. By doing this I could see that the track was very wide. It also gave me a good view of how much sliding through the turns the cars were actually doing. It was a lot like what a fan would see on a really smooth dirt track. Of course, there was a race official stationed on the backstretch to make sure people didn’t make the race a demolition derby. It was a good day during a season with limited ice racing. Overall, it was a fine day of ice racing with very good weather, some really good racing and even more outstanding and friendly people. I couldn’t expect anything more. Following the racing there was still time to drive three hours back to Minneapolis to catch a flight home. I suspect that just about every ice racer I met today was sound asleep in their beds by the time I got home. They deserved it; they did the work today. STATE COMPARISONS Minnesota This afternoon and evening I saw my 57th lifetime track in Minnesota, the North Star state, yes the North Star state. Ed Esser has reported seeing more tracks up here than anyone else. He’s seen 77 of them. I have twenty-eight tracks in Minnesota yet to see. Several of them are either ice tracks or county fair once a year operations. Only two for traditional ovals that race on a regularly scheduled basis. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! Do some trackchasers carry an unfair geographical advantage? Should foreign trackchasers be given a handicap so they can enjoy the fruits of trackchasing glory? Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Minnesota sayings: You don’t happen to speak two languages do you? Yes, I am fluent in English and Minnesotan. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 1,535 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins Mason City, IA – 130 miles Merrifield, Minnesota – 296 miles Minneapolis-St. Paul Intercontinental Airport – 565 miles – trip ends Total air miles – 2,070 (2 flights) Total rental car miles – 565 (1 car) Total miles traveled on this trip – 2,835 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Cerro Gordo County Multi Purpose Center- $10 Crystal Lake Ice Track – No charge Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $10 COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 300 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report . . Click on the link below to see well over 100 photos from today’s ice racing visit to Minnesota: A day at Crystal Lake and more Minnesota too! 
